The deity at Pandharpur, in Western Maharashtra, is called
Vitthala, Vithoba or Panduranga. Like the murthi at Tirupati,
this murthi is also said to be self manifested. [Keshavdas: p.1]
All the relogio-spiritual activity of Maharashtra saint poets of
middle ages was centered around this deity. The role of these
saint poets in preparing the mental state of Maharashtra of
establishing Maratha rule by Shivaji, is universally accepted to
be very important. Even today, it is an important deity and is
worshiped by all the castes, low and high, and it is the surce of
inspiration to a vast sectin of society. A big sect of devotees
is called varkari and these people walk down to the shrine from
long distances at least once a year for festival.

Deep rooted tradition

That Vithoba of Pandharpur is none else than Buddha is a
well rooted tradition in Maharashtra. In our childhood, the
book of numbers and alphabets used to have pictures of ten
avatars of God, ninth avatara being depicted as Buddha, and the
picture of Buddha shown was that of Vithoba of Pandharpur and
none of the pictures of Ajanta etc. this shows a great deep
rooted feeling in Maharashtra mind that Vithoba is Buddha.

R.C.Dhere [Dhere: 1984: 231] has observed that since the
practice of printing panchangas on press was stared, the picture
of Vitthala is shown as the ninth avatara of Buddha, with the
caption buddha or boudha printed in the bottom. He has such
panchangas in his possession. In one of the comparatively recent
book shri ram sahastra nam a picture of Vitthala and Rukmini with
Garuda and Hanumanta is printed with a caption of 'boudha'. He
knows at least two sculptures depicting Vitthala as the
buddhaavatara among the ten avatars, one at Genesh temple at
Tasgaon in Sangali dist., and second in Mahalakshmi temple at
Kolhapur. Image of Buddha avatara in Dasavatras at Rajapur in
Ratnagiri dist., though worn out is seen as that of Vitthala.

Dr. Lokhande summarizes

Dr. Bhau Lokhande, in his above quoted work has summarized
the literary evidences in a nut shell, showing that all the
saints of middle ages considered Vitthala as Buddha and none
else. The following is its summary. [Lokhande: 1979: 123]

12th century poet Jaideo has praised Buddha as ninth avatara
on the authority of puranas. Marathi saints have considered
their principal deity, Vitthala as Buddha only.

Saint Eknatha, while considering Vitthala as Buddha says

"Oh! Vitthala, seeing people madly invloved in wealth and
women, you Vitthala have taken the form of Buddha and
keeping your hands on waist, and observing silence, station
yourself on the brick as the ninth (avatara)."

"...At your door, saints wait for you eternally, but you in
great grandeur of Vitthala are standing for Pundalika
keeping yourself on brick in the incarnation of Buddha."

Even to saint Tukarama and Namadeva, Vitthala appears in the
form of Mouni Buddha (i.e. one who observes silence).

"It is my misfortune that you as Buddha have adopted the vow
of silence. As Buddha in name and form, God has become
silent in meditation."

Saint Eknatha says to Lord Vitthala that,

"You have manifested yourself on the immorial ksetra of
Pandharapur in the form of Buddha seeing that the Dharam has
declined and adharma has increased."

Lokhande thinks that, the origin of the word Vitthala as
given in the Uttar Khanda of Padma Purana should be considered in
the same context. Padma Purana, chapter 35, verse 24 says
Vitthala is one who shelters ignorant, downtrodden, criminals and
gives them knowledge. Who else was such a great personality
other than Buddha and Vitthala, the above derivation of the word
Vitthala has got special significance which cannot be denied.

Another important fact is that Lird Buddha gave His first
sermon to the Panch Vargiya Bhikkus on the full moon day of
Ashadha. This day is called Guru Paurnima and main festival at
Pandharpur is celebrated on this day. Also Lord Vitthala wears
Yellow Robes called Pitambar. This all fits well with the
Buddhist tradition and history.

Views of Dr. Ambedkar

Views of Dr. Ambedkar that Vitthala is none other than
Buddha are well known. He had started writing a book on this
subject. Unfortunately book could not go beyond a few pages.
[Keer:p.501] Even these few pages are not available to us.
Whether these pages are still preserved int he unpublished works
of Dr. Ambedkar and whether this writing will see the light of
the day, only the furture can tell.

Views of Dr. Ambedkar as given by his biographer Dhananjaya
Keer are as follows :--

"...Images of Vithoba at Pandharpur is in reality the image
of Buddha. I am writing a Thesis on it which will be read
at Bharat Sanshodhan Mandal of Pune. Name Panduranga is
derived from word pundarika. Pundarika means Lotus and in
Pali Lotus is called Panduranga, which means Panduranga is
none else but Buddha..." [Keer: p.50]

Views of Kulkarni

The views of Sri. A. R. Kulkarni are also well known and
they are given in the Appendix to Dhammapada edited by him. He
has reviewed the saint poets' literature and derived conclusions
similar to those of Bhau Lokhande. Kulkarni also mentions that
there are images of Dhyani Buddha on the stone pillars on the
hall of the temple. He further avers that the famous western
scholar John Wilson has given evidence that this temple is
Buddhist, in his 'Memoris on the Cave Temples.' [Kulkarni: 1978:
129]

Kulkarni points out that the Buddha conquered the enemies by
love and non-violence unlike Rama and Krishna who used weapons,
and believes that Image has got both hands on waists because of
this and quotes the story of Angulimal in its support. Whether
one agrees with Kulkarni's views or not, one thing is certain
that the image of Panduranga is a fine example of webbed hand, 'a
traditional mark of Buddha' and the image depicts a bilateral
Katyavalambita mudra. The nurthi of his consort
is not along
with the Lord, and contarary to depiction in modern picutres,
consort Rukmini is in another room.

Kulkarni points out that Vitthala is different from Krishan
because firstly there is a separate Krishna Temple nearby,
secondaly Saint Dnyaneshwara mentions Madhava and Vitthala
separately, and thirdly Mahanubhavas who are devotees of Krishna,
visit only Krishna temple in Pandharpur and not the temple of
Vitthala.

Inscriptinal Evidences

Archaeologically, two inscriptions are mentioned by R. G.
Bhandarkar. First is of 1249 A.D., a grant of a village in
Belgaum district at Paundarikakshetra, a holy place situated on
the Bhimarathi, in vicinity of the God Vishnu, and identifies it
as Pandharpur; the second is of 1270 A.D. mentioning of a
Aptoryama sacrifice in Pandurangapura, which is another name of
Pandharpur, probalbly named after Panduranga. [Bhandarkar: 1982:
122]

It is belived that originator of Varkari cult, which forms
the main bulk of present day devotees of Lord of Pandharpur, was
Saint Dnyaneshwara who completed his commentary on Gita,
'Dnaneshwari' by 1290 A.D. [Ibid:p.131] Dynanedeve
rachila paya
i.e. Dnyaneshwara laid the foundation, is a popular tradition.
Certainly the shrine was present before Dnyaneshwara and bhakti
of Panduranga was prevalent then. It is to be noted that
inscriptions mention the names Panduranga and Pundarika, which
are concerned with Buddhist trditions, a well known Buddhist text
is called Sadharma Pundarika, i.e. Lotus of Teachings of Buddha.
Obviously name Vitthala came at a later date. Vitthu is said to
be Kannada rendering of word 'Vishnu'. This shows that this cult
must be Buddhistic before Panduranga was equated with Krishna
Vishnu.

Legend was created to connect up names of
Pundarika and Vitthala

To establish connection between the names Pundarika and
Vitthala the authors of Mahatmya had to do a lot of acrobatics
and the faniciful story as mentioned by Bhandarkar is as follows:

"...Pundalika who spent all his time in service of his aged
parents and god Krishna was pleased with his devotion to
them, ...In the mean time while Krishna was living at
Dwaraka, he remembered Radha, ...who ... was living at
mountains for practice of austerities... came to know of
this through her innate cognitic powers and came at once to
Dwaraka and sat on the lap of Krishna. ... Rukmini, the
wedded wife of Krishna came to the place and Radha did not
rise up to honour her. ... Rukmini got offended, left
Dwaraka and wandered about until she came to Dindiravana and
rested there on the site of modern Pandharpur. Krishna was
filled with sorrow at the disappearance of Rukmini and went
about in quest of her to all parts of the country until he
came to the place where Rukmini was lying. After some
explanations she was reconciled to him and Krishna then went
to the hut of Pundalika to reward him for his devotion to
his parents by personal manifestation. Pundalika being
engaged in attending to the wants of his father and mother
was not able to greet him at once and threw back a brick
(Marathi : vit ) and asked him to stand on it and wait for
him until he finished what he was engaged on. Krishna stood
on the brick and there he was joined by Rukmini and thus the
shrine of Pandharpur grew up."8

Views of R.C.Dhere

Shri R. C. Dhere in his Marathi monograph "Vithala: ek maha
samanvaya" i.e. "Great Syncretization,' (a story of
vaishnavization and sanskritization of a god of 'gopa janas' i.e.
cow herds of South) has discussed the various aspects. He reviews
all the sthala-puranas. He is of
the opinion that all the
panduranga mahatmyas of all the sthal-puranas is an attempt to
"Vaishnavize" the god Vitthala. In places where the worshipers of
original local deities wanted to preserve the identity of their
god, the writers of sthala puranans accepted their claim and
attempted to superimpose on it the greatness of Vitthala, thus
promoting the process of vaishnavization. (p.42).

He believes that Vithala may be more ancient than Krishna,
Vedic or even prevedic. (p.62). He was originally a folk god of
cowherds (gopas). He avers that he was a god of dhanagars, a
tribal community of the area and has given many tribal folk
songs, to prove his point (p.387). He agrees broadly with
Dhanpalwar who contemplates a shaivite stage during conversion of
Vithala from Buddhism to Vaishnavism. (p.109 ff.)

Giving archeological evidences to show that 'Pandarange' was
the original Kannada name of this Vitthala shrine, he avers that
all the words like Pandurang, Pandurang kshetra, Pandurangpur,
Poundarik kshetra, Pundarik and all such concepts originated from
the word 'Pandarange'. He believes that "The origin of word
'Vithala' is not yet satisfactorily explained, and only to
explain this name, a story is compiled, depicting the throw of a
brick (marathi-vit) by Pundarika', a sankritizised form of
"Pandrange" (p.43). He quotes Khare who believes the name
Vithala is the name in south Indian Tamil language, denoting
hands akimbo i.e hands on the kati, (p.160). He opines that the
origin of word 'Vitthala' from 'vit' i.e brick is very artificial
and story that Vitthala kept on standing on the brick (vit) is
the fable to support it. (p.160). The story of Pundalika, which
was accepted by the masses before Dyandeva, is not historical, it
is purely mythological. Pundlika is not a son of history but an
imaginary hero of devotees' fancy. (p.50)

In addition to saints' verses given above, he mentions more
verses including some of Dynandeva and observes that all saints
from Dnyandeva to Tukarama call him 'twenty fifth : different
from 24 avataras' (verse-68) and Namadeva calls him 'one not seen
in a thousands, and not among the twenty fours'. Though only ten
avataras are popular, twenty four is the highest limit of
Vishnu's incarnations. Vishnu has one thousand names which go by
the title of 'Vishnu sahasra naam' but Vitthala is not found in
it. (p.52) He is also described as 'naked' 'digambar' by Eknatha,
and described as 'a child.' (p.55)

He avers that the first song ever written in any Marathi
text is for the praise of Buddha avatara, in Manasollas, a
sanskrit text of 1131 A.D. Here the description is of 'maya moha
Buddha', like that in Puranas (p.232)

He further observes:

"The description of Buddha incorporated in ten incarnations
in Puranas comes with slight difference here and there in
various Puranas like, Harivamsha (1.41), Vishnu Puran
(3.18), Bhagwat Puran (1.3.24, 2.7,37, 11,4.23), Garud Puran
(1.1), Agni Puran (16), Narad Puran (2.72), Ling Puran
(2.71), Padma Puran (3.252) etc. Vishnu took this
incarnation to deceive the 'daityas' by heretical views,
says Vishnu Purana. Harivamsha says, Vishnu took this
incarnation in Kikat-desha to confuse the lowly people doing
yadnyas by vedic mantras. Garud Puran calls him 'Jin putra'.
Bhagwat says, after the start of Kali, to deceive those who
hate the devas, a 'jin suta' by name of Buddha will take
incarnation in Kikat desha.

"Kikat meaning Bihar, the historical
birth place of the
Buddha, similarly a term 'Saugat', names of places like
Sarnath and Mrigdaya, term 'parivrajika' applied to disciple
of Buddha, all these are found in the descriptions in
Puranas. Vishnu Puran calls him 'mundit' (i.e. tonsured) and
'nagna' (naked). 'Maya-Moha' is a special adjective for him,
because he deceives the daityas by his moha. Becoming
'Digambar', he only, taught Jina dharma, and becoming
'raktambar' he advised Buddha dharma. He is also the same as
promoter of heretical ideas like Charvaka."

"It makes one sad to see these descriptions in puranas about
the Buddha. To call Buddha a maya moha and his teaching to
be heretical to divert the demons away from the right path,
is a great injustice to the greatness of the Buddha. While
converting the Buddha to Vishnu avatara, the puranas have
disposed off the teachings of Buddha in such a manner. They
accepted the Buddha but completely discarded the Buddha's
teachings. In this background a verse in "Meru tantra" is
important, which says that the Vipras following left path,
Kundaks, Degraded from the caste, having no vedic sanskaras,
those becoming 'mlencha' by mistake, the Golaks, the
Kayasthas etc. can obtain salvation by taking refuge in
Vishnu in Buddha avatara. Jaydev, the poet of 'git govind'
also praises the Buddha in the same way. Buddha who despises
the yadnyas and shrutis and animal sacrifice is the great
ocean of compassion." (p.233)

Knowing well the derogatory remarks of Puranas about the
Buddha, why did the saint poets praise the Buddha? he observes:

"We must not forget that, practically nothing gets lost in
our tradition, it only changes the name and form.
Maharashtra was a land of follower of Buddha for about 1500
years before the Namadeva. There is not one single mountains
range where Buddhists have not excavated their caves. In
this womb of Sahyadri, the Buddhist bhikshus were eternally
chanting 'Buddham shranam gachami' from hundreds of Buddhist
caves. The great precepts of 'ahimsa' and 'karuna' were
echoed from every particle of marathi land. From princes to
artisans, every body was in service of these homeless
bhikshus, as seen by numerous epigraphs. To honour these
bhikshus, newly born children were christened as 'Bhikoba'
and 'Bhikubai' in various town and villages. To think that,
this influence of ten fifteen centuries was wiped out just
by influence of one vedic intellectual, would be out of
place of History. On the contrary, he was abused as
"prachanna boudha." Such indelible was this Buddhist
influence." (p.234) (This last remark is obviously
addressed to Adi Shakaracharya.)

"It is not proper to say that such a powerful religion
completely disappeared from the minds of the Marathi masses
just by the fall of bhikkus or by the origin of new
influential cults in the land. The stream of universal love
and karuna which was spread by Dynandeva and Tukaram in
Maharashtra, was originated by the innumerable bhikkus from
the influence of Buddha's teachings of Karuna. This fact can
not be easily forgotten. The Buddhist society of pre-
Dnyandeva period is not seen clearly as 'Buddhists'. Even
then, it has to be presumed that it merged with some other
popular cult"

"Buddha's religion, which flourished in this land for ten
fifteen centuries, emptied its pot of karuna here while
departing in twelfth thirteenth century, and the saint poets
mixed their various streams of bhakti in this main stream to
maintain it as a strong flowing current. Even the
perversions coming in the form of tantrism were discarded in
Maharashtra by the Buddhism which came now came in the form
of Bhagawat dharm. Even in this new form it did not stop
criticizing the Vedas. But its label of non-vedic
disappeared. This religion of saint poets is a new
incarnation of Buddhism, in the cultural life of
Maharashtra, this is the 'mahan yugantra' - The great change
of Era." (p.235)